Bachmann 0-6-0 in storage for a long time


V

Vince-RA

Well-Known Member
Forgive the long background in advance, please, but I think it's relevant :) I bought a whole bunch of HO scale stuff around 10 years ago. Then life got in the way, and I packed it up and stored it away. A good bit of that time things were stored in an unconditioned attic space. Fast forward to earlier this year and I decided to haul things out and get back into the hobby. I've never had room for a layout, so mostly just built cars from kits and scratch. The local model railroad club was selling a set of Bachmann EZ (steel and not nickel silver, alas) track at the show this past weekend for fairly cheap, so I picked it up, figuring I could at least set up some track on carpet and run some trains. Another 10-year-ago purchase was a NCE PowerCab DCC set, also never used.

So here I am with:

1. A track set I've never used (I had to buy a new terminal/rerailer, and have cleaned the rest of the track with a bright boy)
2. A DCC set I've never used (I've never used DCC at all, for that matter)
3. A fairly janky connection between the spade connectors that came with the track set and the bare wire that the DCC power expects (I could easily hack off the spade connector to fix this, at least)
4. A loco (Bachmann 0-6-0T #81801) that has been poorly stored for almost 10 years, but was effectively new in the box

The good news is that I was able to get the loco running in both forward and reverse - woohoo! However it seems really really slow. It doesn't move at all until I hit 16-18 (out of 28) or so on the throttle. And even full throttle seems quite slow. Of course, I have no idea what the "normal" top speed is either.

So, questions:

1. Should I try to open up the loco and get a little oil into the gears?
2. Is this maybe just a matter of adjusting the throttle to speed mapping via DCC? I have no idea how to do this but I'm sure I could figure it out :)
3. Anything else I should consider? (beyond trying to address so many new variables at once, but that ship has sailed! :p)
 
While I am not familiar with this locomotive, in spite of having been stored new-in-the-box, after all these years, the lubrication may have partially congealled. A light application of lubrication might help. I presume, since the locomotive does run, it is equipped to run on DCC, so speed-mapping might help. I would suggest picking up a magazine that deals with DCC. Also, there might be instructions in the box that the locomotive came in, if you have it. The NCE PowerCa is an excellent one. I use it to power/control the DCC engines I run.

I would also recommend cleaning the pickup wheels on the locomotive. If the motor is an open-frame type, check the commutator for oxidation, though a 10-year old model probably has a can motor, where the mechanism isn't exposed.

You also may want to consider replacing that steel track with nickel-silver, which has better conductivity than steel, and less subject to oxidation. Probably others will post suggestions here.
 
If you haven't done so already, you'll need to remove the bottom plate as well as the body and clean all the grease around the gears, after 10 years this will have gone hard and will need removing and replacing, otherwise just as trailrider suggests.

As for the speed mapping, is this a new decoder? if it is, it should run at a normal speed as you haven't changed any CV's, so my guess would be the lack of power coming off the rail, dirty wheels etc. as trailrider has already commented on.
 
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Thanks for the replies - guess I will crack it open and try to update the grease (along with the other 2 just like it). These are brand new, DCC on board, this is the first time they've been run at all. I'll revisit speed mapping if greasing/cleaning doesn't speed them up.

I have a brand new bottle of Labelle 108 plastic compatible oil, is this what I should be using?
 
Vince-RA said:
Thanks for the replies - guess I will crack it open and try to update the grease (along with the other 2 just like it). These are brand new, DCC on board, this is the first time they've been run at all. I'll revisit speed mapping if greasing/cleaning doesn't speed them up.

I have a brand new bottle of Labelle 108 plastic compatible oil, is this what I should be using?
Click to expand...
Most likely.
 
I pulled the bottom off and oiled all the gears/axles I could reach, along with all of the moving parts on the crank. I remember now that one of these locos was purchased used, and the wheels on it were definitely nasty. Cleaned them up with isopropyl alcohol, and now it seems to run reasonably well. I was too chicken to strip the whole thing down - I'll try that when I have more time to deal with the inevitable fallout :)
 
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